BREAKING: RISE ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTS

Activists from RISE - Scotland's Left Alliance protested today at sites in Scotland owned by the Trump Organisation.

Protesters occupied the Trump International Hotel in Aberdeenshire, and picketed the Turnberry hotel and golf course in Ayrshire, which belong to potential Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The protests come the day before a debate at Westminster on whether Trump should be barred from the UK in light of his inflammatory attacks against minority groups in America. The debate was triggered by a petition signed by nearly 600,000 people.

Commenting, a RISE spokesperson said:

"Donald Trump is currently one of the the world's most prominent racists.

"When he launched his presidential campaign in June, he described Mexican immigrants to the United States as 'drug dealers' and 'rapists' (1). Last month, he said that, if elected to the White House in November, he would temporarily ban all Muslims from travelling to America (2). He is, in addition, one of the leading figures in the so-called 'birther' movement, which contends, without any evidence, that President Barack Obama is not a natural born American citizen (3).

"Following the Scottish Government's decision to strip Trump of his 'Global Scot' status (4) - and in advance of the debate at Westminster tomorrow (Monday) on whether he should, in the future, be granted entry to the United Kingdom - RISE activists are expressing opposition to Trump's commercial presence in Scotland. "We did this because we are fully committed to confronting racism in all its forms, because we stand in solidarity with American minority groups targeted by Trump's rhetoric, and because we believe that Trump's association with Scotland is damaging to our country's national reputation.

"We aim today to disrupt, however briefly, Trump's ability to generate profit in Scotland that will then be spent on his campaign of racist demonisation and scapegoating in the US."

In Scotland, we are more aware than most of the bullying tactics Trump deploys when faced with public opposition. While building his controversial golf course at the Menie estate in Aberdeenshire - an ecologically unique stretch of land - he rode roughshod over the wishes of local residents, as well as the legitimate concerns of environmentalists (5).